Berkeley, CA Florists

Berkeley Flower Shop News

A devoted florist gives each 9/11 victim a white birthday rose - The Gazette

Windows on the World, was supposed to take the day off but subbed in for a co-worker.AnnMarie Riccobini, 58, a billings supervisor at a law firm, had just beaten breast cancer.Michael Berkeley, 38, had just founded his own brokerage.Michael LaForte, 39, a broker, never met his third child, born two months after 9/11.FDNY Lieutenant Vincent Francis Giammona, 40, last spoke to his wife while en route to the burning towers.Family members often reach out to Collarone or to the memorial’s staff, touched and surprised by the ritual. “It is with tears of gratitude that I write this,” said Jennifer Glick in an email to the memorial. Her brother Jeremy was among those who rushed the hijackers on Flight 93, which crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. “With all the insecurity and chaos that we face right now, knowing that our loved ones are remembered gives me great comfort.”Kerry Irvine, an artist, used to visit the memorial often to think about her sister, Kristy Irvine-Ryan, a 30 year-old equities trader who had been married for just three months when she died. But in March, she told The Washington Post, “It was all chained off, and one of my first thoughts was, ‘Oh, God, her birthday,’ which was May 22nd.” Then she got a photo of her sister’s name decorated with a white rose. “To know they’re taking care of all of them, and giving them the respect they deserve,” she said, “it takes the load off the families a little bit.”The memorial grounds reopened July 4. The museum will begin allowing visitors inside again this weekend - first, family members only on Friday and then the public on Saturday, with drastically limited capacity.Collarone didn’t come up with the idea for the birthday flowers; that was a volunteer in the museum. But he’s the one who’s made it happen all these years, carefully selecting roses - he wants them to be a perfect white - from the city’s flower market and cleaning them and nursing them at his shop Floratech, in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. “I’m not looking for the cheapest roses,” he says. “I look for the best.”When the pandemic forced New York to shut down, halting inbound flights bearing hard-to-get white roses from global suppliers in the Netherlands and South America, Collarone knew instantly “that I had to take care of it,” he says. “I went into an immediate rescue mode for the 9/11 memorial.”Whereas roses had been coming in on 10 flights a day, there was now one flight a week from Europe. He worked connections (“My Holland guys helped me out.”), paid large markups as freight pricessoared, and sent drivers to the airport to pick up loads of roses directly from the source, circumventing wholesalers, because, he says, the city’s flower market, then and now, “is operating on life support.”His own shop, which used to supply flowers for Madison Square Garden and high-end hotels like the Mandarin Oriental, has hit dire straits. “We’re lucky if we make enough money to keep our electricity on,” Collarone says. He’s had to close all three of his retail flower shops, and lay off all of his employees, some of whom had been working with him for 20 to 30 years.Still, he wouldn’t dream of stopping the birthday-rose ritual, or asking for payment.He “grew up poor,” he says, in the firemen-and-cops enclave of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and worked in a flower shop before becoming an insurance salesman.It was a chance meeting with Andy Warhol at the legendary Limelight nightclub, he says, that got him to turn back toward his love of flowers. Warhol commissioned him to decorate his parties, Collarone says, because the art icon was amused by the idea of this big guy with a Brooklyn accent who rode his Harley around town and knew everything about roses and hydrangeas.His shop is near the World Trade Center,... https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/a-devoted-florist-gives-each-911-victim-a-white-birthday-rose-20200911

A devoted florist gives each 9/11 victim a white birthday rose - Anchorage Daily News

Windows on the World, was supposed to take the day off but subbed in for a co-worker. AnnMarie Riccobini, 58, a billings supervisor at a law firm, had just beaten breast cancer. Michael Berkeley, 38, had just founded his own brokerage. Michael LaForte, 39, a broker, never met his third child, born two months after 9/11. FDNY Lieutenant Vincent Francis Giammona, 40, last spoke to his wife while en route to the burning towers. Family members often reach out to Collarone or to the memorial’s staff, touched and surprised by the ritual. “It is with tears of gratitude that I write this,” said Jennifer Glick in an email to the memorial. Her brother Jeremy was among those who rushed the hijackers on Flight 93, which crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. “With all the insecurity and chaos that we face right now, knowing that our loved ones are remembered gives me great comfort.” Kerry Irvine, an artist, used to visit the memorial often to think about her sister, Kristy Irvine-Ryan, a 30 year-old equities trader who had been married for just three months when she died. But in March, she told The Washington Post, “It was all chained off, and one of my first thoughts was, ‘Oh, God, her birthday,’ which was May 22nd.” Then she got a photo of her sister’s name decorated with a white rose. “To know they’re taking care of all of them, and giving them the respect they deserve,” she said, “it takes the load off the families a little bit.” The memorial grounds reopened July 4. The museum will begin allowing visitors inside again this weekend - first, family members only on Friday and then the public on Saturday, with drastically limited capacity. Collarone didn’t come up with the idea for the birthday flowers; that was a volunteer in the museum. But he’s the one who’s made it happen all these years, carefully selecting roses — he wants them to be a perfect white — from the city’s flower market and cleaning them and nursing them at his shop Floratech, in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. “I’m not looking for the cheapest roses,” he says. “I look for the best.” When the pandemic forced New York to shut down, halting inbound flights bearing hard-to-get white roses from global suppliers in the Netherlands and South America, Collarone knew instantly “that I had to take care of it,” he says. “I went into an immediate rescue mode for the 9/11 memorial.” Whereas roses had been coming in on 10 flights a day, there was now one flight a week from Europe. He worked connections (“My Holland guys helped me out.”), paid large markups as freight pricessoared, and sent drivers to the airport to pick up loads of roses directly from the source, circumventing wholesalers, because, he says, the city’s flower market, then and now, “is operating on life support.” His own shop, which used to supply flowers for Madison Square Garden and high-end hotels like the Mandarin Oriental, has hit di... https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2020/09/10/a-devoted-florist-gives-each-911-victim-a-white-birthday-rose/

Cheer Up a Neighbor at Halls Garden Center and Florist - TAPinto.net

Halls Garden Center and Florist, located at 700 Springfield Avenue in Berkeley Heights, is open for business with new hours of operation: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 908.665.0331.Halls is currently offering a "Cheer up a neighbor Promotion" while supplies last. "During a time like this, a little kindness goes a long way. Our tulip and hyacinth bowls will be on sale in hopes you spread some cheer to others." (Tulip and hyacinth bowls: buy one, get one 50 percent off of equal or lesser value.) They also have flowers for bouquets and arrangements.Their green house is open and is marked with red tape for customers to follow the six feet social distancing guidelines. They ask that you call 908.665.0331 to place your orders for bulk deliveries or curbside pickup. Along with their current inventory of bulb plants and pansies, they also have lettuce and an assortment of herbs. They also can fill your propane tanks. ... https://www.tapinto.net/articles/cheer-up-a-neighbor-at-halls-garden-center-and-florist

Berkeley Florist Remains Bitter That It Can't Do Curbside Sales While Whole Foods Sells Flowers Next Door - SFist

Marin counties will get to reopen for curbside pickup and sales along with the vast majority of other retailers, but the same will not yet be true for three other Bay Area counties and the City of Berkeley where stricter, Phase 1 sheltering orders are remaining in place a bit longer (pending any new revised orders from those counties' health officers). That isn't sitting well with Ashby Flowers co-owner Marcy Simon, whose Berkeley shop sits next door to an Amazon-owned Whole Foods location, where flowers are also for sale. Ashby Flowers has been allowed to stay open for deliveries only — KPIX reports that other flower shops elsewhere in Alameda County have begun doing curbside pickups but that is not clear from the most recent county health order issued last week. The City of Berkeley's public health department, which acts independently of the county, is maintaining no curbside retail reopenings for now, and Simon is getting impatient."At the beginning we immediately closed our store, shut off our lights, put up messages to the community saying 'we’re all in this together and we’ll be back.'" She adds, "I think people are going to start defying the rules much more now that Tesla has done that, for sure. We won’t, but others will."Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a stand against Alameda County this week and ultimately got his way in reopening the Fremont Tesla plant — even though it seemed like the county was headed toward allowing manufacturing to restart soon anyway. But actions without consequences like that breed insurrection... https://sfist.com/2020/05/14/berkeley-florist-bitter-about-curbside-retail-rules/

A Family Tradition: Berkeley Floral Shop Celebrates 45 Years - Berkeley, NJ Patch

BERKELEY, NJ — Stacey Cofka's parents opened three flower shops on the Jersey Shore. Since they sold two shops and retired in 2004, A Blossom Shop Florist on Route 9 has remained a family operation. A Blossom Shop Florist opened in 1975 and has been celebrating its 45th anniversary throughout 2020. Cofka credits the local customers for sustaining the business. "It's a central location for covering a lot of the shore area, and the people are great," she told Patch. "Everyone's pretty much down to earth in this area. A lot of our customers, they're just fabulous. They come in, they're like family." Cofka worked in marketing for 12 years with Atlantic City casinos. Sixteen years ago, her parents — Paul and Cathy Mulhern — retired. They had sold their other shops in Sea Girt and Howell. Their daughter took the opportunity to buy the Bayville shop from her parents. "It just got overwhelming with the politics," she said of working for casinos. "I just said, 'Why am I doing this for everybody... https://patch.com/new-jersey/berkeley-nj/family-tradition-berkeley-floral-shop-celebrates-45-years

‘Are You The B**** That Stormed The Capitol?’: Florist Bombarded With Hate, Mistaken For Shop Owned By Capitol Rioter - CBS Sacramento

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — A California flower shop is caught in the middle of a fight that’s not even theirs. Now Becky’s Flowers wants to set the record straight.The Roseville store is taking heat for someone in Midland, Texas who’s accused of taking part in the Capitol riots.Assistant manager Kali Mitchell described the stress of simply answering the telephone.“I said, ‘Becky’s Flowers how can I help you?’ And it was immediately met with, ‘Are you the b**** that stormed the Capitol?'” said Mitchell.“I even had one guy say a lot of things I can’t say on TV, obviously,” said owner Aaron Alberti.Those words were aimed at Jenny Cudd. Cudd was arrested Wednesday and charged with a misdemeanor accused of taking part in the Capitol riots.She could be seen smiling and waving at cameras as she left a virtual hearing. She told media outlets she’d, “do it again, and I’d have a gas mask next time.”Here’s where the Roseville store comes in. Cudd also owns a Becky’s Flowers, but it’s an entirely separate shop in Midland, Tex... https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2021/01/15/capitol-riot-beckys-flowers-president-trum/

Calif. flower shop with no connection to Capitol riot flooded with threats, negative reviews - SFGate

Thursday afternoon. “One of our employees recently picked up the phone, and the person on the other line said, ‘Are you the bitch who stormed the Capitol?’ And she just said, ‘No, ma’am, we’re in California.’ And the person hung up on her. There’s no apology, no nothing.” At first, Alberti tried to delete the growing number of comments, which he found downright disturbing. “People have written things like, ‘I hope you get cancer,’ ‘I hope your shop burns down,’ ‘I hope you die,’ ‘I hope you rot in jail,’” he said. “And those are the polite ones.” Contrarily, Alberti added that the shop even received a love letter intended for Cudd from a firefighter living in Florida. “To be honest, they both concern me,” he said. In response to the harassment, Alberti notified the Roseville Police Department, which has been periodically sending out officers to check in on the shop. He also contacted Yelp, which he said acted quickly to remove the misguided comments, as well as Google, though he’s still awaiting a response. of this store since 1973.We are getting hate messages and bad reviews as a result. To our customers, please know that we were not part of that. Thank you for your continued trust and please ignore the hate reviews that are not meant for us.— Becky's Flowers (@BeckysFlowersCA) January 8, 2021 “It was just crickets,” he said. “Which was frustrating, because somehow all of (Cudd’s) negative reviews were removed from her page and likely identified as a targeted attack, and we’re the ones dealing with the repercussions.” (At the time this article was published, most of the negative Google reviews for Alberti’s business appeared to have been removed from the platform. However, Cudd’s business also has a 4.6 rating.) Two other florists bearing the same name in Kentucky and Scotland were burdened with similar harassment. Alberti said all of them have given up on deleting the comments, and are instead attempting to respond to each one in order to set the record straight. “I offered to send some people maps of the United States,” joked Alberti. “Most people apologize and then they reverse, but some are steadfast. My thing is, I understand the need to vent and get rid of that hostility, but just spend an extra five seconds of time to see t... https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Beckys-Flowers-Roseville-mistaken-Capitol-rioter-15871654.php

Becky’s Flowers In Roseville Bombarded With Hate, Mistaken For Shop Owned By Capitol Rioter - CBS Sacramento

Becky’s Flowers has a warning to customers on its website stating:“ATTENTION: Our shop has NOTHING to do with the Becky’s Flowers in Midland, TX or any affiliation with Jenny Cudd. Our shop is in California. We did NOT storm the Capitol Building.”... https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2021/01/14/roseville-beckys-flowers-threats-riot/

Import ban to affect shipments to Hawaii florists - Honolulu Advertiser

HONOLULU ? Seeking to prevent introduction of a fungus that would threaten Hawaii's native ohia forests, the state Board of Agriculture has banned plant products from California, Florida and South America that could be disease hosts.The prohibition will primarily affect shipments to Hawaii florists, who rely on imported flowers and greenery in bouquets and floral displays.At Kihei-Wailea Flowers by Cora, Manager Thelma Garso said about 40 percent of their products used in displays may be affected by the ban.At the smaller A Special Touch shop in Lahaina, florist Leann Lum said she hoped she can purchase more of what she needs from local growers."I think local is always better anyway. It's always fresher," she told The Maui News.The order approved at a board meeting on Aug. 28 takes effect Friday on shipments of any plants of the Myrtaceae or Myrtle family, which includes eucalyptus and guava as well as ohia, which are endemic to Hawaii, and ohia-ai or mountain apple, which is Polynesian introduced.According to Department of Agriculture information officer Janelle Saneishi, the state Plant Quarantine Division has notified Hawaii florists that any Myr... http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Sep/06/br/br8430721956.html